Perk cards: which roll to buy, what it gives, and how the deck works
Perk cards are the civilian side’s build system. You roll them in the graveyard with Perk Points, put 15 into a deck, and draw from that deck as a match goes on. IllFonic says bigger rolls improve your odds of a rarer card but has never published the odds, so the chart below is what players actually pulled.
A tally of 494 logged rolls from several players. The 750 and 1,500 rows rest on fewer than 80 rolls each, so read the shape, not the exact percentages.
15
cards in a deck
2
copies of one card, max
50
cards in your collection
5
roll stakes, 500 to 2,500
Which roll to buy
The roll screen lets you raise the stake from 500 to 750, 1,000, 1,500 or 2,500 Perk Points. Players disagree about which is best, and the tallies explain why: the extra points mostly turn tier I cards into tier II and III ones. They don’t visibly buy you epics or legendaries. Pick the stake by what you are after.
Filling a deck with tier III
750 to 1,500
A common choice. Counting points spent, the 750 roll produced a tier III or better for the fewest points in the tally, and 2,500 was no cheaper per tier III than 1,000 or 1,500.
Hunting one card or a legendary
500, then scrap
Tier IV and V turn up about as rarely at 500 as anywhere else, and you get five rolls for the price of one 2,500. Scrap the spares: a tier II or III card usually returns most of a 500 roll or more.
The 2,500 roll
Fewest tier I per roll
A few players swear by it. Others who rolled it exclusively came away with a pile of tier I to III cards and at most one or two legendaries, even after 100,000 points or more, and moved down to a cheaper stake.
Three logs of the 2,500 roll
Same stake, three separate counts. The spread in tier I shows how streaky a few dozen rolls can be.
| Log | I | II | III | IV | V | Rolls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500 column of the 494-roll tally | 18 | 21 | 21 | 3 | 1 | 64 |
| One player's 46 rolls | 13 | 12 | 17 | 2 | 2 | 46 |
| Another player's 48 rolls | 28 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 48 |
Scrap, upgrade and the 50-card limit
Scrap
Turns a card back into Perk Points. A tier I returns little, tier II and III several hundred up to about 1,500, a legendary around 2,500. Values vary between copies of the same tier, so check before you scrap.
Upgrade
Raises a card’s level for a set number of matches, shown as notches under the level. It can jump more than one tier, a III to a V for example, then it drops back. Worth it before a session that matters, not as a permanent fix.
Collection cap
You can hold 50 cards. Heavy rollers hit the cap fast; scrap third copies and low-tier duplicates, since a deck can only use two of any card anyway.
Building a deck, step by step
1. Open Civilian Perks in the graveyard
The graveyard is on the main menu. Civilian Perks holds your decks, your collection and the Roll Perks button. Michael has no cards; his options come from level, as the perk decks and progression guide explains.
2. Fill all 15 slots
This is the rule that trips most players up. With fewer than 15 cards equipped, the game fills the gaps with random cards from the whole game, including ones you don’t own. Fill the deck and every draw comes from your own cards.
3. Double up on the cards you want most
A deck takes two copies of any card. The second copy raises your odds of drawing it, and if you draw both the effects stack. Two copies of a card you rely on make it show up far more often than one.
4. Build around your civilian
Cards add to a civilian’s fixed stats and traits, so skip what they already have: Marcus picks locks without Trespasser, and a high-Capability civilian gets more from Thick Skin than a fragile one. Compare stats on the stats page and traits on each character page.
5. One deck covers every civilian
Deck 1 is free and works for whoever you play. You only need a second deck if you want separate builds, say one for fighting Michael and one for rescuing residents.
In the match: drawing your cards
Your deck isn’t active when the match starts. Actions that earn points (talking to residents, calling the police, working on exits) fill a progression circle. When it fills, press up on the D-pad, or P on PC, and pick one of three cards drawn from your deck. Most matches give you three to five picks, and the very first one takes a little longer since Patch 1.0.1 raised the XP it needs.
- You stand still while the cards come up, so pick somewhere Michael can’t catch you mid-animation.
- The icon is easy to miss. Players regularly finish a match with picks still unspent.
- A card only works once you pick it. That is why an equipped Trespasser shows no lockpick prompt at the start of a match.
- After you die or escape, you can keep helping: spectators pick perks to send to a civilian still playing, and some of those hand out items. Doing it 100 times is Rachel’s Beyond the Grave challenge.
Cards players ask about
A lot of cards don’t get better with tier, and a few read worse at legendary. Check the number on the card before you spend points upgrading it.
| Card | What it does | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Pied Piper | One extra resident can follow you. | It is +1 follower at every tier, so a common does the same job as a legendary. Hard to roll; plenty of players have spent six figures without seeing it. |
| Slippery | Makes the grab struggle minigame easier. | Players put it at about 20% easier. Some rate it the best card in the game right now; others find the difference small. How grabs work |
| Thick Skin | More resistance to sharp damage. | This is the one that covers Michael's weapons, and a favourite on high-Capability civilians like Bob and Thomas. |
| Hardened | More resistance to blunt damage. | Nobody can point to a Michael attack that deals blunt damage, so players tend to leave it out and run Thick Skin instead. |
| Trespasser | Pick locked doors by holding the interact button. | It only works once you draw it in the match; owning and equipping it isn't enough. Players also find the hold takes far longer than the card says. Marcus has it built in. Marcus Navarro |
| Survival Intuition | Marks one random escape location on your map. | Still one escape at tier IV and V. Great while you are learning the exits, less so once you know where they spawn. Escape locations |
| Knockout | Keeps Michael down longer when you help down him. | 10% at tier I and 10% at legendary. Two copies do stack if you draw both. |
| Voice of Reason | Your followers take less fear. | The legendary card reads 25% less fear while tier III reads 80% and tier IV 100%. Keep your lower-tier copy. |
| Sixth Sense | Hear Michael breathing in Shape Jump from farther away. | Tier II and tier III both read 2 meters, so upgrading it buys nothing. |
| Unphased / Shield of Law | Both reduce fear gain; Shield of Law only near police officers. | Shield of Law is the narrower version of Unphased, so Unphased is the one to keep if you only have room for one. |
| Adrenaline | Faster stamina recovery. | About 12% at tier II and 35% at legendary. Pairs with Unwinded, which cuts stamina use. |
| Liquid Courage | More melee damage while drunk. | Patch 1.0.3 cut the melee boost civilians get while drunk, so drunk-brawler decks hit softer than at launch. Patch notes |
| Lethal Pitch | More damage from thrown items and weapons. | IllFonic lowered tiers II to V in Patch 1.0.2 after the top tiers proved far too strong. Patch notes |
Every civilian card, shown and explained one by one
Every Civilian Perk RANKED in Halloween: The Game
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Pied Piper and the car achievement
Pied Piper is the card people chase, because I found the Car! asks you to escape with a car full of residents and only two residents follow you by default. The card lets a third follow, at every tier. It can drop from a 500 roll, but many players have spent 100,000 points or more without seeing it, and owning it still means drawing it in the match you need it.
You can get the achievement without it:
- Fix a car, get two residents in, and leave the third hidden close by. Honk the horn and the third one runs over and climbs in.
- Or load one or two residents, bump the car gently into something so they get startled into staying put, then go and fetch the rest.
A private match keeps other civilians from stealing your residents or taking the car. Achievement rates and the rest of the list are on the achievements page.
Extra decks, and the deck-swap bug
You can buy up to five more deck slots with Perk Points, and they get expensive: the sixth costs 25,000. Before buying one, know that switching decks is unreliable right now. Some players find the extra deck only offers Edit, with no Equip button. Others find that picking Deck 2 for one civilian switches every civilian to Deck 2 while the character screen still shows Deck 1.
Your 10,000 free Perk Points, and prestige
Patch 1.0.4 gave every current player 10,000 Perk Points. They didn’t land on every platform at the same moment, so give them a little time if they’re missing. What to do with them depends on whether you want to prestige.
Going for profile prestige
A profile prestige costs 5,000 Perk Points and starts a 24-hour challenge. If the timer runs out you pay again to retry, so the gift covers two attempts. Read the prestige guide first; some challenges are bugged.
Spending it on cards
10,000 is twenty 500 rolls, thirteen at 750, ten at 1,000, six at 1,500 or four at 2,500. If your deck isn’t at 15 cards yet, cheap rolls to fill it come first; a second deck can wait.
Perk Points are paid out for finishing matches. The grants and every perk change are listed in the patch notes.
Questions
- Is the 2,500 perk roll worth it?
- It gives fewer tier I cards and more tier II and III than the cheaper rolls, but tier IV and V cards stay rare at every price. A common approach is 750 to 1,500 for filling a deck, or 500 when you are hunting one specific card, because you get five times as many rolls and can scrap the spares.
- Can you get a legendary card from the 500 roll?
- Yes. Players pull tier IV and V cards, Pied Piper included, from 500 rolls. The cheap roll just hands out a lot more tier I cards along the way.
- Why do I get perk cards I don't own in a match?
- Your deck isn't full. With fewer than 15 cards equipped, the game fills the empty slots with random cards from the whole game. Equip 15 and every draw comes from your own deck.
- How many copies of a card can a deck hold?
- Two. Patch 1.0.1 set the limit. A second copy raises your chance of drawing that card, and if you draw both, their effects stack.
- Are perk card upgrades permanent?
- No. An upgrade raises the card's level for a set number of matches, shown as notches under the level, then it drops back to the level you rolled.
- Do I need Pied Piper for the I found the Car! achievement?
- No. It lets a third resident follow you, but you can also get two residents in the car, leave the third hidden nearby and honk, or bump the car gently into something so the first two stay put while you fetch the third.
- What else are Perk Points for?
- Extra perk decks, and profile prestige, which costs 5,000 Perk Points per attempt. Michael has no cards, so everything else goes on civilian perk rolls and upgrades.
Keep going
Perk decks and progression
The four level tracks and where cards fit in.
Prestige
What prestige costs, the 24-hour challenge and what you keep.
Civilian stats
The four stats your cards build on.
Characters
Every civilian's traits, so you don't double up with cards.
Achievements
I found the Car! and the rest, with unlock rates.
Patch notes
Every perk change and Perk Point grant.